Mar 17, 2026 minute read

As the Senate works toward passing the SAVE Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, illegal immigrants have been revealed to have voted in multiple US elections. 

A Mauritanian illegal immigrant who was ordered to be removed from the US in 2002, Mahady Sacko, also known as “Sacko Scorpion,” was arrested by ICE earlier in March. The Department of Homeland Security revealed that Sacko has voted in seven federal elections since 2008, and has been charged with voter fraud in Pennsylvania. Per the Department of Justice, “Sacko falsely represented that he was a U.S. citizen in order to vote and register to vote.”

When contacted by the New York Post, Sacko claimed, “Everything is a lie! They are lying about me” and hung up. The outlet uncovered nearly a dozen other cases of illegal immigrants voting in US elections, sometimes for decades.

In the swing state of Pennsylvania, officials admitted to a glitch in its “motor voter” program that mistakenly allowed around 100,000 non-citizens to be able to register to vote. A trial for another case out of Pennsylvania regarding Indian national Kaushalkumar Patel is set to start this month after he allegedly voted in the 2020 election. Patel’s lawyer, Philip Steinberg, told the outlet, “Mr. Patel has lived a law-abiding life in the United States for over 20 years. He works, pays his taxes and is an active participant in his community. He is also the proud father of two young daughters.”

Canadian national Deniz Bouchard pleaded guilty to counts of making false claims that he was a US citizen to vote in the 2022 and 2024 elections in North Carolina on March 6. A man of the same age and name was found by the New York Post to have voted in every election since 2004. That man was removed from the state’s voter rolls after Bouchard’s conviction. 

Out in Michigan, 19-year-old Chinese national Haoxiang Gao, who was a student at the University of Michigan, was charged in June with illegally voting in the 2024 election. He fled to China using another passport after he had handed his over to the judge at his arraignment. He is still reportedly listed as an active voter in Michigan. 

Other cases include 59-year-old Cecilia Casellanos, a Cuban national and registered Democrat who was arrested in October and pleaded guilty in January to perjury and voter fraud. She had an order of removal dating back to 1999. Also in October, Arkansas authorities arrested Zlata Risley, 50, of Kazakhstan, who had been registered as a Republican, and Nigerian Chi Baum. Both are alleged to have illegally voted in the 2024 election, despite being lawful US residents, not citizens. Two Ukrainian women were arrested in Florida in April 2025, mother Svitlana Demydenko, 53, and daughter Yelyzaveta Demydenko, 22, and were alleged to have been registered as Democrats and cast ballots in the 2024 election. They came to the US on non-immigrant visas. 

Yet more cases were found in upstate New York involving an Iraqi national and a Jamaican national in Florida.

Pressure has been building on the Senate to get the stalled SAVE Act passed. Trump has said that he will not sign any bills until the legislation is passed. Democrats have claimed that non-citizens voting in elections are a “myth,” and that the new legislation is an “extremist white supremacist agenda” and “Jim Crow 2.0.”

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